Stanford defense makes all the plays

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 29, 2007

It was a good news, bad news day for Stanford football. And given the program's recent history (a 1-11 season in 2006), that kind of balance might be considered admirable.

First the good. The Cardinal defense, which was listless and underwhelming in two previous scrimmages, turned it on in Saturday's annual Cardinal and White Spring Game at Stanford Stadium, playing an impressive, energetic game.

The bad news -- their success came at the expense of the Stanford offense, which had what coach Jim Harbaugh called its worst performance of the 15-day spring practice session. The Cardinal's first-string offense, led by senior quarterback T.C. Ostrander, scored one touchdown in 12 possessions against Stanford's No. 1 defensive unit.

Senior wide receiver Evan Moore worried out loud that the 2,000 fans or so that gathered on a balmy evening will walk away with the wrong impression.

"I thought that we've looked pretty darn good this spring and it's pretty unfortunate that all these people saw our worst performance of the spring," Moore said. "I have to give a lot of credit to the defense. They played hard and they beat us today."

Stanford's defense forced three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble) and collected seven sacks and pressured Ostrander into a difficult day.

After going 14-of-15 in a live scrimmage last week, Ostrander was 19-of-36 for 164 yards and an interception Saturday. None of Stanford's top three receivers -- seniors Mark Bradford and Moore and sophomore Richard Sherman -- caught a touchdown pass. The only touchdown from the No. 1 offense came on a 1-yard run by converted fullback Emeka Nnoli, capping an 8-play, 55-yard drive.

"I think it was important for the defense to finish on a good note," said senior cornerback Nick Sanchez, who had an interception. "We've had pretty good back and forth with the offense all spring, but we didn't play well in the previous scrimmages and it felt good to come out and fight those guys back."

Redshirt freshman running back Tyrone McGraw had the big offensive day, rushing for 147 yards on six carries, including an 85-yard touchdown run with the No. 2 offense, but then sat out the rest of the scrimmage with a sore hamstring.

Harbaugh said he thinks that picking up the practice pace, with five sessions in the week leading to the game, wore down his team. And he said conditioning and stamina will be a priority leading into fall camp.

"Practicing five days shouldn't impact these guys, but apparently it did. That's obvious to me," Harbaugh said. "A football team wins on its legs and we need to improve on our speed and conditioning to get better. There were some slow legs out there."

Harbaugh said the Cardinal got through camp without serious injury and that none of the players forced out of spring ball -- chiefly running backs Anthony Kimble, Jason Evans, and cornerbacks Tim Sims and Carlos McFall -- should be affected come August. The same goes for players such as running back Toby Gerhart, offensive tackle Chris Marinelli and nose tackle Ekom Udofia, who did not participate in camp.

"We came out of it clean and that's probably the thing I'm happiest about," Harbaugh said. "No serious injuries."

Harbaugh said the competition for the No. 2 quarterback spot, between junior Tavita Pritchard and redshirt freshman Alex Loukas, will carry over into fall. Loukas completed 4 of 12 attempts for 20 yards Saturday. Pritchard was 4-of-11 for 114 yards, but threw two touchdown passes.

Stanford opens fall practice Aug. 6. Harbaugh said much of the work of installing the offensive and defensive schemes has been done.

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